Being a Christian in Science

Rich Milne

Being a Christian in Science

"Carl Sagan is a friend of mine. He said that if Jesus ascended
literally and traveled at the speed of light, he hasn't yet gotten
out of our galaxy."(1)

So said Episcopal Bishop John Spong, when asked if he believed that
Jesus had ascended into heaven. This is an example of the worst
kind of mixing of science and Christianity.

In this essay we are considering how to live with integrity as both
a Christian and a scientist. Books about science and Christianity
are published every month, but they are usually difficult to read
and seldom easy to apply. Walter Hearn dynamites those stereotypes
in his new book, Being a Christian in Science.

Hearn's book is the result of having been a Christian from
childhood, and a scientist for much of his working life. His desire
is for Christians to enter into science and make a career of it.
But he also wants anyone who enters this road to know what joys and
obstacles lie ahead around the many bends. His book is by turns
intensely practical and deeply devotional.

Ever since Darwin, many Christians have been uncomfortable around
science. Many of us have the feeling that science is trying to do
away with the need for God. Most of us have heard scientists like
Carl Sagan, speaking far from their field of expertise, make grand
pronouncements like "The universe is all that is, or was, or ever
will be." Is it possible for Bible-believing Christians to also be
committed scientists?

Hearn's book, Being a Christian in Science, does not try to deal
with creation/evolution issues, or chance vs. design arguments, or
even science vs. God questions. Instead, his clear and heartfelt
focus is on questions such as, How do you work as a scientist if
you are also a Christian? What is science like as a profession? Can
I really pray in the laboratory?

At the outset it is important to distinguish between a "Christian
Scientist," with a capital S, and a "Christian scientist."
In the first pages of the book, Hearn, a life-long chemist and
editor, separates what science can and cannot do. Science can in no
way establish the claim that nothing supernatural or eternal is
real. When such a claim is made, it is not scientific but
scientistic.(2) While this is not the book's emphasis, Hearn is
very clear about what the limits of science are, and as Christians
we must think clearly about what science can and cannot do.

Using Being a Christian in Science as a basis, we will look at what
scientists really do, why Christians might spend their lives in
science, and what resources there are for believers who make
science their chosen career. My hope is that you will see, not only
the value of science, but, if you are a Christian young person who
already loves science, you will see that this is a vocation to
which God may be calling you. Science is changing the shape of our
world and we need Christian scientists just as much as we need
Christian teachers, or carpenters, or missionaries.

What Do Scientists Do, Anyway?

Many Christians are not too sure what scientists do, and fairly
sure they don't want to know. As Walter Hearn pointedly observes in
his book, "Evangelical churches that
send missionaries around the world seldom see the 'World of
Science,' or scholarship in general, as a mission field."(3) Too
many Christians seem to see scientists as "the enemy" with little
thought of what they do or how they might be reached with the
Gospel.

What is a Christian? Someone who believes in Jesus. Yes and no.
What is a scientist? Someone who believes in science. Again, yes
and no. A Christian believes that Jesus is the answer to certain
questions about how we can be forgiven and stand before a holy God,
questions about how we can know what will happen to us when we die.
As a Christian, have you ever thought about being a scientist? Just
what is a scientist, anyway?

A scientist believes that science is a "group of methods for
solving a particular kind of problem."(4) Science is not just a
list of facts or theories, it is a way to understand the natural
world by observing, experimenting, and then attempting to find
cause and effect relationships. Scientists are fascinated by the
world around them. They long to understand more than what we
already know about this complex and intricately connected world we
live in. A scientist knows we have few of the answers, and he or
she sets out to at least try to ask the right questions so that we
can learn more about how things work, and how this wildly diverse
world fits together.

What does it take to be a scientist? Walter Hearn, himself a lab
chemist for twenty years, gives a disarmingly simple answer to this
question. A scientist needs "curiosity about nature, intelligence,
perseverance, common sense, and better-than-average conceptual
ability. . . . Flexibility is another important characteristic."(5)
This is a little like saying "Just have faith" to someone about to
enter a long spiritual trial. What he does not say is how hard it
can be to maintain these admirable traits on a day-to-day basis in
the face of what much of science really is.

Mathematicians can look at the same set of equations for months
before they see the relationship between them. Biologists can do
the same or nearly the same experiment dozens of times over weeks
and months, before they see the result they hoped might happen.
Geologists may spend months in the field gathering data, unsure of
how they will ever make sense of the big picture. Much of science
is daily hard work, often without knowing whether you are
succeeding or failing, and then, occasionally, the "aha" moment
when things suddenly fall into place and you have one more small
stepping stone across the wide expanses we know little or nothing
about. Would you still like to be a scientist?

Next we will consider why God might call people to be full time
scientists and how a Christian might live out such a calling. There
are no easy answers, but if you enjoy science, God might well call
you to be one of the bridges in the twenty-first century that
allows Christians and scientists to understand one another. It is
a critically important calling.

How Can a Believer Live as a Christian in Science?

"Avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science
falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the
faith." (1 Tim. 6:20-21, KJV)

Misunderstanding Paul's admonition to Timothy has left many
Christians skeptical of science. After all, don't most scientists
believe Darwin, and didn't Darwin disprove the need for God? Why
should Christians waste their time on science?

In his wonderfully gentle-tempered book Being a Christian in
Science, Walter Hearn offers a quotation from a Christian physics
professor that capsulizes this feeling as it applies to a broad
range of academic pursuits:

One hears Christians speak proudly of their sons or daughters who
have married seminary students or missionaries. . . [But] I have
yet to hear a Christian father speak proudly of his son or daughter
marrying a graduate student. No wonder our young people are
discourage from entering the rigorous life of learning and
research.(6)

Christians could once justly claim to be leaders in most
intellectual arenas. Modern science is widely acknowledged to have
its roots in a Christian perspective on nature. If we believe that
God created the world we live in, then shouldn't we be involved
with the scientists who are exploring it?

We have already spoken briefly of some of the personal
characteristics that many scientists share. If God is calling you
to a life as a scientist it is likely that He has also given you
the gifts or talents that it takes to work as a scientist. Have
math and science classes gone well for you in school? Do you feel
some drive to find out more than what you already know about outer
space or inner space? What would life be like as a scientist?

Being a Christian in Science spends several chapters on questions
like "What to Expect" and "Science as a Christian Calling." Perhaps
the most difficult situation is being misunderstood by both
scientific colleagues and other Christians. Christians in science
live between two cultures. As Hearn warns: "Christians in science
are people with two strong allegiances, holding citizenship in two
distinct communities."(7)

The scientific community sets a very high premium on good work.
Hearn writes of the importance for Christians who are also
scientists not only to make clear their faith in Jesus Christ, but
also to be committed to doing really good science. One author found
that many Christian graduate students felt guilty about how much
time they spent in the laboratory or the library, because it took
time away from other Christian activities. They seemed to feel that
"their professional work clearly did not have the same value in
God's sight as their Christian 'witness.'"(8)

If God is calling you into scientific work, you must not only love
scientific work, you must have an assurance that your work will be
a way to serve God with your life. And this is where you may feel
under attack from your Christian friends.

Most of us are used to the idea that the world needs Christian
salespeople and Christian mechanics and Christian lawyers. If
scientists are to be reached with the good news of Jesus Christ,
the church must see that scientists too are a mission field, and,
like most mission fields, they are best reached by the "natives,"
other scientists.

In the next section we will consider some of the controversies that
await a Christian entering science, and how a believer might
respond to them.

Caution, Controversies Ahead

"Scientists may not believe in God, but they should be taught why
they ought to behave as if they did."(9)

Max Perutz, with a Nobel prize in chemistry, made this statement
several years ago in response to critical remarks about Cambridge
University establishing a Lectureship in Theology and Natural
Science. Richard Dawkins, outspoken biologist and atheist, could
barely contain himself in an editorial letter about the same
lectureship: "The achievements of theologians don't do anything,
don't affect anything, don't achieve anything. What makes you think
that 'theology' is a subject at all?"(10)

Being a Christian in our culture is often not politically correct.
Christians often see scientists as not being biblically correct.
So, if you intend on being a Christian scientist, controversy
likely awaits you. How can you respond?

Walter Hearn has a chapter entitled "What to Expect." It has much hard-won
advice, and he skillfully raises a number of issues while
carefully avoiding taking sides. Hearn seems preeminently the
peacemaker in both this chapter and the whole book.

One of Hearn's suggestions is to learn to live cross-culturally. A
missionary to Africa may learn another language, and must
understand a new culture well enough to explain the Bible in ways
that make sense to those people. So, too, a Christian scientist
must learn to explain the beliefs of Christians to unbelieving
scientists. But at the same time, he or she must also learn how to
explain the workings of science to Christians suspicious of the
pronouncements of scientists. And the two different funds of
knowledge make fundamentally different requirements on those who
hear. Hearn summarizes: "Scientific conclusions generally take the
form of statistical generalities making no demands on the knower.
In contrast, the moral aspect of religious knowledge puts doing the
truth on a par with knowing the truth."(11)

A second simple statement of great insight is, "It may be wise to
step back from some issues even when people whom we admire are
passionate about them."(12) Hearn follows his own advice as he
discusses Phil Johnson and his critiques of Christian scientists
who accept the whole of evolutionary theory and then have God
direct evolution. Hearn does a masterful job of stepping back from
this issue and presenting mostly the views in favor of Johnson's
position. At the very least he is demonstrating another
characteristic of a peacemaker: being willing to listen to and
understand the criticism of those who disagree.

One area Hearn discusses at some length is the growing crisis in
ethics among scientists. This is exactly the point of the quotation
at the beginning of this section. As science has disowned God, it
has also lost any rock on which to anchor a sense of right and
wrong conduct. This is where Christians have much to contribute to
the discussion. The Bible gives us a basis for deciding right and
wrong that science is sorely missing. But it will be primarily in
our daily work as scientists that we will show what a biblical
framework for ethics looks like.

Hearn makes the wonderfully sensible suggestion of keeping our
Bible among the reference works at our desks. All of us, whether
scientists or not, need to live more clearly by the book we claim
as our authority.

Christians in Science Have a Godly Heritage to Follow

Being a Christian in Science may frustrate
some people. Some will find themselves wondering why he doesn't
take a more clear-cut stand on certain issues. Others will want
Hearn to be more specific. But the often inconclusive stance of the
book is also what allows Hearn to be so conciliatory in tone. On
almost every issue he touches he allows as much diversity as he
feels he possibly can. He is never strident, almost never critical,
always positive or at most questioning. He models the role of a
peacemaker in the midst of controversies that are dividing both the
church and the scientific community.

Some of the best material in the book Hearn saves for last. In his
chapter "Good Company" he gives us his personal Hall of Fame and
Encouragement. Much like Hebrews 11, Hearn considers the lives of
other Christians who have gone before him and lived the Christian
life in the midst of the scientific community. Some are dead, some
are newly arriving on the scene. All he considers friends. What
unites them is their commitment to the work of science and their
service for the God they love. It is both an encouraging and
challenging chapter. There are men and women, a Nobel laureate, and
the head of the government's Human Genome Project. There are
mathematicians and biochemists, teachers and astronomers. Some are
members of the National Academy of Sciences, the most prestigious
group of scientists in America. But all of them, Hearn tells us,
"Have contributed to science . . . while clearly identifying
themselves as Christian believers."(13)

Another feature of the book is its short but intensely practical
suggestions for living out what we believe. Stuck in a meeting that
is starting late? Don't waste the time, says Hearn--pray for each
person around the room or table, bringing each before the Lord.
Don't know how to pray for someone? Perhaps this is a sign you need
to spend more time listening to that person.

Possibly the most valuable part of the book are the resources
mentioned throughout the text and then richly documented in the
notes at the end of the book. Hearn describes how to develop a web
of friends who can be a support when experimental work is going
badly or when spiritual encouragement is needed. He also shows how
the ubiquitous World Wide Web is opening up a whole new frontier of
both information and possible friendships.

The twenty-three pages of notes at the end must be read to be
appreciated. It is amazing how much diverse information Hearn packs
into his comments on each chapter. If you are considering a career
in science, or if you are already a working scientist, you need to
read this section.

In summary, Being a Christian in Science is a compelling expression
of just what Paul exhorts us to do: "Whatever you do, do your work
heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men."(14) Hearn shows the
potential young scientist what it will take to do his or her work
heartily, and at the same time makes clear where many of the
potential pitfalls lie, and what vast resources are available for
the Christian who is serious about living as both a Christian and
a scientist in this complex and confusing world. If you are a
scientist, keep this book on your desk along with your Bible.